Hidden behind the thick mist of the ocean, dense cloud of Olympus and dark fiery pits of the underworld is a battlefield. A battlefield where a human must face the awesome powers of the Greek Gods to defend the Temple of Gaia. Though imposingly named and with a Greek tragedy like story, Mytheon: Assault of Gaia isn't that 3D fighting adventure game ported from Mytheon PC game. It's a line defense game more fitting for the iPhone platform.

Gameplay

If you have played line defense games like Plants vs. Zombies, you will feel right at home with Mytheon AoG. Battles are fought on a Greek coliseum like stone surface that's divided into at first 2 x 9 and later on expands to 4 x 9 squares. Enemies march through these squares from right to left, and you must stop them before they reach the temple just behind the last squares to the left. Your weapons include attack towers like Ballista, Bomb, fire bolt, ice bolt, lightning bolt and more. Each of the weapons has one level of upgrade, i.e. Ballista becomes Double Ballista, and Lightning Bolt becomes Double Lightning Bolt. The indispensable defense towers like the Wall tower, Reinforced Wall tower and Earth Tower accompany the attacking towers. While the attacking towers will ultimately take down the enemies, the defense towers buy the precious time you need to build up the attacking towers.

With nearly two dozen towers in the game, Mytheon AoG starts you off easily with only a few towers and a 2 x 9 field. The currency to buy the attacking and defense towers are the blue and red mana orbs generated by the mana towers and Gaia herself from her temple. There is an interval in producing mana orbs which gives you time to think about what to build and where. While you are planning your strategy, the enemies won?t wait for you. After a few brief moments in the beginning of each level, the enemy arm starts its march. Building mana towers should be the first things you do in the beginning of a level, block enemy units where you can, but build up the mana towers to ramp up the orb production. Like many line tower defense games, there is a moment in each level that becomes so crucial that how you do in this moment will determine the outcome of the battle. If you fail, just try again with a different strategy.

As you move from fighting Poseidon to fighting Hades and finally facing Zeus himself, you gain new tower options gradually. Once you?ve unlocked all the towers in the game, you get to play a few solid levels with all attacking and defensive towers at your disposal, though not all in the same level. You can only have 7 types of towers in each game, so this means you must choose which ones you need to beat that level. The decision however isn?t as hard as it sounds, since many of the later towers are just the upgraded versions of some earlier towers. It?s easy to choose the most powerful form of the same kind of tower.

There are 15 types of enemy units in Mytheon AoG, each has its own attacking, agility and resistant levels. They are varied enough to provide entertaining elements, such as medusa sends sound wave, minotaur levels your thin walls easily, Cyclops is there to waste your arrows, etc., but in general enemy units behave similarly: get to the other side in anyway they can. It?s a nice touch that Mytheon mixes some elemental aspect into the gameplay: fire towers yield much better result against ice monsters and vice versa.

The game doesn?t track scores but offers 10 feats you can collect. Some feats are very enticing such as completing levels under certain conditions, but others are there for laughs. For example, you get feats (achievements) for finishing the training level successfully, etc.

Graphics

Though you don?t get the jaw dropping 3D effects of the PC version, the top down graphics in the iPhone version is very effective. Everything is sharp and well placed. Towers are well designed as you can see clearly what they are on the field and animations are smooth. Touch controls work very well in the game.

Sound

Mytheon AoG has epic sounding music that seems like taken right out of Rome, the TV series. The music plays throughout the game accompanied by plenty of sound bites. Each tower has its own sound and they all fit together nicely. There is no option at all to turn sound on or off, or even change the volume.

Conclusion

With 35 levels of line defense gameplay, Mytheon: Assault on Gaia has the right mix of towers and enemies to be a very entertaining game. The game has a great theme, very nice graphics and sound. There are enough towers to keep you busy, though the game doesn?t feel epic in the replay department. The defined battlefield will please the line defense fans but for those free map tower defense players, it will feel a bit boring and lack of creativity.

Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):

Graphics: - 5 - Top down view battlefield is sharp and all units work smoothly.Sound: - 4 - Music sound epic, sound FX excellent, but no options to control volume or on/off.Controls: - 5 - Touch control is smoothly and flawless. Gameplay: - 4.5 - A nice mix of towers and a good selection of enemies.

Playing Hints and Tips:

- Place the walls as close to the front of enemy invasion as possible.

- Place ballista behind the walls with one space to spare so that you can put an ice or fire tower.

- Start your mana towers as early as you can in a level. User the bomb towers to take out the front line if you fall behind.